


A Cosmic Comic Hoax

by Synthpop



Category: Furry (Fandom)
Genre: Cryptids, Desert, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:21:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22288549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synthpop/pseuds/Synthpop
Summary: “You don’t have to chase the love of people who don’t know you. You have so many people who love you forwho you are, regardless of what folklore says yououghtto be. And maybe those jackalopesareout there somewhere, and maybe they’ll be as understanding as you say: but that doesn’t help with the pain you’re innow. I know you feel lonely, Sonora, in ways I can’t comprehend—but I want you to know that you’re not alone. Your friends are here for you. They love you.”Sonora was quiet. The wind whistled through the twists of saguaro.“Ilove you.”
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	A Cosmic Comic Hoax

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for [HERE](https://twitter.com/here_zine), a furry zine about the experience of POC in the community. I'm very honored to have been able to participate in such a wonderful project for such a wonderful cause! <3

“It’s cold, Cat.”

It wasn’t, really. The southwest desert, having escaped the unforgiving gaze of the sun for the evening, had cooled, but it wasn’t _cold_. The sand beneath Catalina’s calloused paws still held the warmth of the day in its coarse grains.

“Whatever you say—I can see you shiverin’.”

Catalina snorted, not so much in humor as it was in exhaustion. Sonora was, unfortunately, an astute rabbit.

“Jackalope.”

Catalina’s fur bristled. So soon? They had only just parked.

“You see one?” she asked, her voice a gravelly growl.

“What? No, c’mon. Don’t get my hopes up.” Sonora chuckled into a fluffy paw, impishly elusive of the razor-sharp claws Catalina knew lay dormant. “Jacks don’t show up for just anyone, y’know! Gotta wait ’em out for a bit. Show ’em that’cha mean business.”

Catalina stared at her.

“I mean, uh.” Sonora moved that same paw to the back of her head, and her raucous laughter softened into giggles. “You were callin’ me a rabbit again. That’s why I brought it up.”

“I didn’t say any such thing,” said Catalina.

“You were thinkin’ it!”

Catalina thought about deflecting her claim, but knew it was futile: Sonora was eerily skilled at picking up on wandering thoughts. She often wondered if those long antlers of hers were actually antennae, tuned into the same frequency as Catalina’s brainwaves.

Sonora rolled her eyes. “Calm down, babe. It’s not like I can read your mind. I ain’t, like, an alien.”

Catalina huffed. “You sure about that?”

Sonora mulled over the joking proposition for longer than Catalina had expected. “I mean, I guess it’s possible. Some accounts of alien abductions mention that they question their subjects about jackalopes—maybe they’re out searchin’ for their own kind.”

They were doing a pretty poor job of searching, if that was the case. Sonora clawed at the stars every night, throwing her voice high enough for Martians to hear. If they were out there—if they were listening—they had to have been on their way by now.

Sonora’s eyes flitted to meet Catalina’s. “If they were, would you miss me?”

Catalina hummed in thought.

“What the heck!” Sonora’s lips curled, revealing wicked canines that rivaled Catalina’s own. “If you’re gonna be a jerk, you can head home! I can hunt by myself, thanks!”

“I have all the stuff," Catalina said, gesturing to the backpack slung over her shoulder. “Binoculars, cameras, knives. Beer.”

Sonora’s nose wrinkled. “It’s four A.M., Cat.”

“I figured we could drink it later.”

“After it starts boilin’?”

“After it gets cold again.”

Sonora maintained eye contact for a scatter of beats, before she snorted and turned away.

“We’ve got cryptids to catch,” she said, then took off into the dawn-threaded horizon. Catalina followed after her, tail wagging against the wind.

\---

Once the heat gathered its grit, the air started to simmer. As a desert native, Catalina was accustomed to such weather: centuries of instinct enlightened her paws on how to best tread through the boulders and brush, and her light, brindled fur shielded her from the omnipresent sun.

On the contrary, Sonora was smothered head-to-hoof in a suffocating overabundance of floof.

“I’m fine,” Sonora wheezed, her every teetering step heavy and clumsy. “It’s not the heat, it’s just… hiking. Hiking blows, dude.”

“We can come back another time,” Catalina suggested.

Sonora waved a paw in front of her face. “Nah, I’m good! Besides, we’re almost to the top. Can’t give up halfway through.”

Catalina licked her lips, but didn’t press.

The lonely mountain they had decided to scale would serve as a good look-out post, Sonora had declared at the onset of their trek. Jackalopes were anxious creatures and wouldn’t so easily show themselves to a couple of strangers.

“They won’t come out and meet another of their kind?” Catalina asked.

“’Scuse me?”

“Jackalopes. You’re also a jackalope. Shouldn’t they recognize that?”

“Oh, uh.” Sonora patted a cloud of dust from her fur. “I dunno. I don’t exactly look like your traditional jack, you feel? One recollection of the jackalope describes it as having the hooves and antlers of an antelope and the tail of a quail, but I haven’t read anything about one with just antlers and hooves.”

“Well, you know there’s at least one,” said Catalina.

But they both knew that wasn’t enough. Sonora blew a brusque stream of air between her teeth as she sped up to pass Catalina, buzzing with renewed vigor.

Eventually, the two reached the wane of the hiking trail. The butte had been far more intimidating from its base than it was now impressive from the top; all there was to see for miles in every direction was the yawn of brown desert, choked with cactus and creosote.

Before Catalina could set her backpack down, Sonora was already rifling through its pockets.

“Catch,” she said, tossing a pair of binoculars into Catalina’s paws. She caught them with ease, and Sonora exclaimed, “Oh, nice! Those cat-like reflexes of yours never fail to impress.”

“If you get upset being called a rabbit, imagine how a coyote feels being called a cat.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure it tears you up.” Sonora located a pair of her own binoculars and zipped up the bag. She took a step back to survey their surroundings, seeming pleased with herself. “This’ll be the day we find one, for sure! I can feel it in my bones!”

Catalina hoped, for Sonora’s sake, that she was right.

As they settled onto their picnic blanket, Sonora whipped the binoculars up to her eyes. She went completely silent—a surreal rarity. Catalina didn’t know if she appreciated or feared its witness.

Catalina tried to peer out her own binoculars, but the blooms of sunshine rooting in the sand were too bright to bear. So, instead of searching for cryptids, her gaze settled on the one she had already managed to find.

\---

As the sea-drawn sun smattered the sky with scarlet and cinnabar, Sonora rose to her hooves and broke the silence.

“I’m done.”

Twelve hours of hunting—nothing. No wampuses, no death worms, and only one jackalope.

Catalina stretched her arms and released a long, whining yawn. “Ah, I’m exhausted.”

“You could’ve left at any time,” Sonora pointed out. Her tone was as bitter as blood.

“I didn’t say I disliked it. Didn’t think it, either." She scratched lazily behind her ear. "You know I’m telling the truth.”

Sonora scowled, but she didn’t say anything else. Neither did Catalina—not for a while.

“You don’t have to keep looking for them, you know.”

“Huh?”

“They might not be out here,” Catalina continued. “You can search every weekend until alien or robot Armageddons doom the Earth, but there’s a possibility that you won’t ever find them.”

“They’re out here,” Sonora proclaimed, focused on the sunset. Her eyes grew misty.

“You don’t have to chase the love of people who don’t know you. You have so many people who love you for _who you are_ , regardless of what folklore says you _ought_ to be. And maybe those jackalopes _are_ out there somewhere, and maybe they’ll be as understanding as you say: but that doesn’t help with the pain you’re in _now_. I know you feel lonely, Sonora, in ways I can’t comprehend—but I want you to know that you’re not alone. Your friends are here for you. They love you.”

Sonora was quiet. The wind whistled through the twists of saguaro.

“ _I_ love you.”

A few moments passed. Catalina couldn’t read the expression on Sonora’s face—she didn’t share her gift of perception.

Eventually, Sonora settled back onto the blanket next to Catalina. She was closer than before—her whiskers tickled Catalina’s own.

“I love you, too,” she whispered.

Catalina’s heart swelled.

\---

After beers were guzzled and sunset was swallowed—long after they began their descent down the mountain—Catalina swore she saw something.

Along the seams of the dark canvas above, she spotted a huge, V-shaped cluster of lights. Not just lights, but a form—a _craft_ —vast enough to stamp out every star.

But the object droned swiftly across the sky, and before Catalina could reckon its identity, it had vanished into the east.

Catalina looked to her partner, seeking her expert opinion. Were they moon-men, perhaps? Invaders from Mars? Violators of the Prime Directive?

Sonora’s eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Comets kited wisdom in loops through her irises.

“Military flares,” she said simply. “There’s an air force base to the west.”

And maybe this time, like taxidermy tricks and faux found-footage, the wonder would be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading!


End file.
